A few weeks ago Alan came down to mine and we built a small single-stage. I don't actually know any specs about the unit apart from it has Danfoss NL11F, 3 row condenser and an acumulator lol .

Anyway here are some pics;

Getting some parts together

Started brazing the DSH coil on and a few other things here and there

Condenser from the side

Electrics need doing at some point

Vacuumed the unit for about half an hour or so to make sure Bill's vac pump worked ok

General view of the unit. You can also see we soft-soldered the captube on to the acumulator

With case top on

Front end

This unit is still far from finished but we will be working on it again soon. We still need to do the electrics, bolt everything to the base, screw the fan into the condenser, vacuum it out properly, insulate and some other things. We will update the thread as it is progressed .

UPDATE: From 29th May .

We had some problems with the electrics yesterday, so today we went to our local refrigeration supplier and got a new relay for the NL11F. The motor in the compressor now fires up perfectly .

Also we were both told that all new compressors come bone dry with no oil in. So, Alan filled the compressor with some proper POE oil and was then notified that the compressors do infact come pre-charged with oil. So last night at about 12am I went and choped the compressor out and drained the oil overnight.

At the refrigeration supplier today we got a nice 4.5litre jug of oil which I have been told can be used with any compressor and gas and works great, and so it does .

Also went to BOC today and got Alan an oxygen bottle on rent for his brazing kit .

Unit was charged at first with just 2.5bar static, which wasn't enough. We kept adding small shots and then the temperature plumeted to -49°c . We were going to use Alan's new refrigeration scales to tell you guys exactly how many grams the unit took but it needed a new battery so it wasn't possible.

Closer up picture of the units suctionline and evaporator frosting up.

Evap itself .

Running pressures for Dave .

Insulated with red cable sleeving, red heatshrink and enclosure on the lineset.

Something that we were both gobsmacked at was how quiet the compressor actually is ! When we fired it up the only thing we could hear was the fan... we thought the compressor motor wasn't even running at first. Ran quite cool too, after about 30mins running it was just warm.

Alan has a 300W cartridge heater which we will use to load test and tune the unit sometime soon. Stay tuned for more results .

Cheers Ham . It's a beast of a fan that one... it's 120mm x 120mm x 38mm IIRC. 240v and with a metal enclosure. It weights about 1.5Kg .

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='Kempez'

Very tidy work there, had a chance to get it caining some hardware yer?

Welcome to OC3D matey

Thanks . Not yet, the load tester will be made soon and then we will tune it for about 200W I think. Will post temps when it happens .

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='Rastalovich'

Thanks for the pics m8, thats one awesome looking end result.

I was wondering if u would be concerned with a kink or 2 in the copper piping coming off the compressor ?! (8th pic down)

-49 sheesh.

Thanks . That slight kink on the suctionline just before the compressor will restrict flow a tiny amount but we're hoping that won't cause any problems. If we do encounter any problems that piece of tube will be replaced straight away!

The only reason it's kinked slightly is because even though we used a tube bender it still wasn't tight enough to fit, so we had to bend it a bit more by hand.

Nice man... So who is Alan? Did he build this for you as it looks pretty pro!

Good job

Hey thanks . All the unit is Alan's but he has just started with phase change, so I built most of it to teach him . He has some other parts ready for another single-stage which he is going to try building on his own soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='Kempez'

lol ye soz - is it for a Dual Core? With 200w of load that's what I was imagining?

Yeah it's for his brother I think. I assume he will have a dual core CPU . Also 200W is a good ball mark to tune for, because it will be able to cope with older single-core CPU's as well as the new dual cores and might even cope with a low clocked quad-core.